10th Anniversary Columbine High School Shootings

Posted: Mon 10:11 PM, Apr 20, 2009&nbsp|&nbsp

Updated: Mon 10:14 PM, Apr 20, 2009

LITTLETON, Colo. (AP) - With words of hope and healing,Coloradans on Monday marked the 10th anniversary of the ColumbineHigh School shootings that left 12 students and a teacher dead. About 1,000 people gathered for a sunset memorial service atClement Park, next to the school, where survivors, relatives andcurrent students reflected on the massacre. A dove was released foreach of the 13 victims as principal Frank DeAngelis read theirnames. Addressing the survivors, DeAngelis said: "You were forced togrow up far too quickly." Two seniors at Columbine unleashed an attack with guns and pipebombs on the morning of April 20, 1999. A bigger bomb, which theyhoped would destroy the crowded cafeteria, failed to go off. The gunmen, Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, committedsuicide. "There are days I feel like it was yesterday. There are days itfeels like a lifetime ago," said Val Schnurr, a Columbine alumnuswho was wounded that day. Bill Clinton, who was president at the time of the shootings,addressed the crowd in videotaped remarks. "It's changed you, your community, your fellow Americans,"Clinton said of the tragedy. The service drew hundreds of current students, many of themwearing Columbine's school colors, blue and white, and carryingflowers. Many said they scarcely remember the shootings. "I feel like I owe it to the people who were hurt or killed,because it's just such a big part of our community," said AlyssaReuter, 17, who was in second grade at a Littleton elementaryschool in 1999. Flags flew at half-staff over the school in the south Denversuburbs, and mourners lay roses and carnations at the nearbymemorial, situated on a hill overlooking the school. Many wipedaway tears. Columbine called off classes Monday, as it has every year thatthe anniversary falls on a school day. A police patrol car idledout front. About 70 people gathered outside the state Capitol in Denver topush for gun control, while lawmakers inside passed a resolutionhonoring the victims. "Columbine will not become just a metaphor for tragedy," Rep.Ken Summers told lawmakers before they passed a resolution called"Triumph Over Tragedy." Summers was a pastor in the Columbineneighborhood when the shootings occurred. At the gun control rally, Tom Mauser, father of Columbine victimDaniel Mauser, said the shooters did not kill the victims' spirits,and "they did not kill our spirits either." Thirteen people with blue and white ribbons wrapped around theirnecks lay at the foot of the Capitol steps to represent thevictims, and 23 others representing the wounded encircled them. Andrew Goddard, of Richmond, Va., whose son Colin was wounded atthe Virginia Tech massacre two years ago, attended the rally. Hesaid new police tactics that emerged after Columbine probably savedhis son's life. "They (Columbine victims) paid a huge price for that smalllesson, but that lesson did benefit the students at Virgina Tech,"he said. At Columbine, police and deputies followed a standard tactic ofestablishing a perimeter before advancing carefully toward thegunmen. Afterward, many agencies adopted a new policy ofaggressively attacking a shooter. Virginia Tech student Seung Hui-Cho killed 32 people andcommitted suicide on April 16, 2007. Oprah Winfrey canceled an episode of her talk show scheduled toair Monday, called, "10 Years Later: The Truth about Columbine." Winfrey posted a message on her Facebook page, saying that aftershe reviewed the taped show, she decided to pull it because of itsfocus on the two gunmen. She urged viewers to keep the Columbinecommunity in their thoughts. --- Associated Press Writers Alysia Patterson, Steven K. Paulson andColleen Slevin in Denver and Caryn Rousseau in Chicago contributedto this report. --- On the Net: Columbine Memorial: http://www.columbinememorial.org Columbine High School:http://sc.jeffco.k12.co.us/education/school/school.php?sectionid282

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